Recently, Ed Herderick (EWI Applications Engineer) spurred a conversation amongst the Materials Group regarding the trend of Offshoring manufacturing jobs. Check out this article from Wired Magazine that Ed provided to our group. Personally, I’ve had experience with manufacturing that has been outsourced to Asia, so this article was particularly interesting to me.
I’m sure that anyone who has experience with manufacturing that takes place on the other side of the globe (be it in Asia, Africa, Australia, or even Europe), is familiar with the following headaches: endless early morning and late night teleconferences, 30hr flights (when layovers are considered), the staggering costs of these flights and hotel stays, (potential) shortages of skilled laborers in the locale, the nightmare of customs and shipping to/from … the list goes on and on. I spent 6 months in Asia during my time in the Oil & Gas Industry, and because of these issues (and many more), I couldn’t help but ask myself daily “Why aren’t we building these in America?”
A major portion of EWI’s mission is to advance the competitiveness of US manufacturing. Can we help you with a manufacturing issue that would increase your productivity, decrease your costs, and make it possible for you to keep manufacturing in the US, or to even bring your manufacturing operations back? If so, give us a call (614-688-5000). From personal experience, I can tell you that would be much easier than the 12hr flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong … in coach.